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Who goes to a state of some confusion?

You will end up exiled in A state of some confusion if your Nightmares reaches 8.

What is a state of some confusion like?

It's confusing, baffling, and quite scary. You are in swirling chaotic dreamland, although there is a hotel and a variety of dream things to explore. Often you may sacrifice your skills performing actions here.

What can you do here?

Hunt down the manager of the hotel. He's a slippery one, though. There is no access to the Bazaar from here.

How do I get out of here?

Storylets and opportunity cards will reduce your Nightmares to an acceptable level, but often at the cost of action points and skill levels. Leaving here will remove about 5 change points in each Dream story and will remove up to four Memories of Light.

What happens at the Royal Bethlehem Hotel?

The manager of the Hotel offers free rooms to guests of particular note or interest. He irritably denies the suggestion that he might be 'collecting' them.Sidebar text.

Storylets available:

Drink from the fountain in the lobby

You've seen other guests do this, and some of them speak in tongues, but some of them speak in their own voices afterwards. That would be nice, you think wistfully..

Take a deep gulp

Your Persuasive may suffer if this goes wrong. Hint: you don't want to succeed in this Nightmares challenge.

You splutter and gag as the stuff goes down your throat

It tastes of donkeys! Well, a donkey. You bray in disgust and dismay. You gallop around the lobby, lashing your tail in outrage. Eventually you are caught, hobbled and led into the garden to eat onion-skins and sprouts.

Ah, refreshing

You don't speak in your own voice after drinking, but your voice is pleasant and silvery. You can feel droplets rolling off your tongue like mercury. If mercury wasn't poisonous and tasted very slightly like moonlight. Ah, moonlight. Like Fallen London doesn't have.

Immerse yourself in the fountain

This is not rainwater

The water is cold and fresh, but it lacks the energy of the storm. You can feel strands of mist floating away from your eyes.Nightmares decreaseStormy-Eyed decrease

Chat to the guests

We recommend the ones whose heads are still attached to their bodies. We do not recommend the ones with other people's heads attached to their bodies. Especially where the head is attached to something other than the neck.

Reminisce about Fallen London

It's hard to know what's true and what's not. Your Watchful may suffer as you try to work that one out. Hint: you don't want to succeed in this Nightmares challenge.

Honestly you don't know why anyone would want to go back to London.

Fire burns there! And people have their faces on wrong. Unfinished Men! A huge upside-down abyss full of bats. At least if you fell into the sky there'd be nothing to end your fall. Here you'd end up speared on a stalactite. There are no foxes in Fallen London. Why is that? Are their tails still afire?

Ah, the mossy squares. The Veilgarden with its lights. The Stolen River…

It's lovely here, of course. All this red and gold. So plush! So pleasant! And the staff are so attentive. But perhaps one day you could walk along the banks of the Stolen River again and complain about how there's no bl**dy weather down here to complain about.

Option 1: Complain to the manager

He rolls his eyes wearily

He sticks his chest out, examines his fingernails, wipes an imaginary smear from one of his magnificent brass buttons. 'Well', he says eventually. 'Perhaps you should think about finding somewhere else, then.'

The man is without shame or scruple! You've a good mind to do just that.Nightmares decrease Tracking down the Manager decrease

Option 2: Thank the manager

He smiles broadly.

He also chucks you under the chin, which is a little over-familar, but, well. His buttons are so very shiny. It's difficult to quarrel with a man of such shiny buttons. 'Thank you,' he says. 'I do hope you'll continue to enjoy your stay.' Nightmares increase Tracking down the Manager decrease (went from 5 to 2 for me)

Option 3: Speak to the manager about…

What? Tiny rectangular destinies? A garden of symbols? A dry fountain? The wizened father of mankind? A burning-eyed merchant of salvation?Unlocks: Ambition: Heart's Desire - The Bishop of St Fiacre's 4.

The manager pats your cheek and pulls a coin out of your ear, beaming like a delicious uncle. 'There, there,' he says. 'Not the time or the place. Perhaps we'll speak later. Be careful of your constant companion. Consider glass. Take no candles from strangers.'
A twist in your tale! You are no longer Tracking down the Manager.
Watchful is increasing…
You now have 1 x First City Coin

Option 4: Ask the manager to make it rain

Maybe he knows how. It would be nice if it rained.Unlocks: Stormy-Eyed 1

Ambition: Light Fingers!

The lady in the room next to yours reminds you of a friend you once had…

Unlocks: Ambition: Light Fingers! 18

Option 1: An exchange of songs

If you sing to her, perhaps she'll just sing back. Surely she doesn't need a tonic. This place is full of hypochondriacs. And frogs. Kittens. Vile and impertinent lamps. Children who think you're their cousin. Enough! But this is dangerous. Who knows what might come out if she opens her mouth?

MAKE IT STOP

You sing a sea-shanty. The lady likes that. A little too much. She leans in, her eyes as big as lakes, and begins to sing to you about the moon. It's coming down to lay itself along your skin like a cool and loving serpent, you see. It's going to infiltrate your eyes. It will insinuate itself into your ears. It will fill you with mercury and wretchedness like the fountain in the lobby. In the end you'll be a sack of skin filled with splashing silver fluid.
You don't much enjoy the song, to be honest. You sit on the floor and cram your fingers in your ears. When you finally remove your fingers, she tells you her story.
She used to be an opera singer. She was taught a special song to keep her baby quiet. Have you seen the Masters of the Bazaar today? They used to visit her chambers all the time. Mr Stones was her very favourite! Such jewels! Nightmares increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 19! [?]
Persuasive has dropped to 99!

Option 2: What a lovely face you have

Unlocks: 1 x F.F. Gebrandt's Tincture of Vigour
The lady is heavily pregnant. You smile engagingly. She is wearing the Fading Music-Hall Singer's face, which seems rude. But one should be kind to the gravid. Will she sing for you, too? She may need a tonic to keep her voice in key.

It's a maid!

The singing maid

You see the maid speaking with the manager. Well, he speaks - she is singing. Singing maids: what a novelty! And such a strange little song. The manager sends her on an errand to the premises of Messrs Leadbeater & Stainrod in Wolfstack Docks. The cheeky creature bobs a curtsy at you before she leaves. You are about to collar the manager when he turns sideways and steps behind a cat.Shadowy increase
Ambition: Light Fingers! has increased to 20!

Opportunities available:

A lost secret

You put a secret down. You did it just a moment ago! Someone must have stolen it!

Search for your missing secret

If it's here, you'll find it. You're good at secrets. That's how you got here, after all.

Option 1: Start a fire in the kitchens.

Well that was disappointing

Everyone's on fire, but they're really not paying attention. It even seems to have livened the steps of some of the older guests. The under-scullion complains about the burnt porridge. That's it. Still, you feel a little more free of the place. A twist in your tale! You are no longer having Recurring Dreams: The Fire SermonNightmares decrease

Option 2: Set fire to your mirror

They won't expect that! They probably think silvered glass won't even burn! [This will take you somewhere else, with your dreams undamaged.]

A single-minded gentleman

Option 1: Go with him

A cosy night-light

You pick out a particular star that he recommends, and take it back to your room, where it glows cheerfully on the dresser like a lovely little city. What a marvellous place, you think happily. Did you ever consider leaving?Nightmares increase Gain: 1 x Glim

Option 2: Push him down the stairs

Bump, bump, bump

The gentleman rolls down the stairs, yelling indignantly. You go about your business with pride. With luck you'll be shot of all this dismal crowd pretty soon.Nightmares decrease

A lamentable affair

The woman next door has become quite obsessed with you. She knocks on the door in the middle of the night and insists on showing you her fossil collection. She always gets into the lift on your floor and complains about the holes in her stockings.

Spurn her advances

Well she's very charming, but you're not here for that sort of thing, are you?

Invite her back to your room

A delicious interlude

You both sit up until the small hours, exclaiming over her fossil collection. So tiny! And yet so perfect! You can see St Fiacre's Cathedral in this one. And that one, that's Bad Monkey Row. Eventually you turn in to sleep, tired but happy, wondering what fossils tomorrow might bring.

Invite her to discuss meteorology

Wide-eyed and innocent

The lady accompanies you to your room willingly enough. But when she looks into your eyes, she blanches. 'That's not who I thought it was,' she says. 'You shouldn't take the light from the candles. Give it back.' Something ineffable drifts away, for a moment.

Make something sensible

That'll make a nice draught excluder

Make a garland for your hair

Unlocks: Stormy-Eyed 1
Choose the prettiest one.

The view from your room

Unlocks: Recurring Dreams: Death by Water 1

Tonight, the view from your room is of a waste of water stretching off to the polar horizon. On the very brink of the horizon, impossibly north, something blinks at you, painfully bright. An iceberg? An eye?

Auto-fire cards

The view from your room

Tonight, the view from your room is of a waste of water stretching off to the polar horizon. On the very brink of the horizon, impossibly north, something blinks at you, painfully bright. An iceberg? An eye? You close the curtains and turn up the gas. It seems colder in here tonight.Nightmares decrease

A lizard of distinction

There's a lizard in your room. The little bastard crawls into your mouth when you sleep. You wake and your mouth tastes of lizard! Quite a refined taste. But lizard! What kind of establishment is this? Where sleeping guests are bedevilled by lizards? You should speak to the manager. Tracking down the Manager increase

OR

There's a lizard in your room. A bloody lizard! Who put it there? Why are you beset by lizards? Still it seems a distinguished sort. It has lunched with kings and ministers. Possibly on kings and ministers. It sits on your pillow to tell you these things. You can't sleep! On the up side, you don't dream.Nightmares decreaseTouched by Fingerwork increase [no higher than 16]

A white cat!

The cat sits at the long bar, disconsolately drinking coffee. It glances up as you slide in next to it. 'Oh, hello. We've met, haven't we?' It stares at you, eyes like pools of honey. You feel compelled to look away. This is not the way you like to start your morning. Perhaps you should just go back to your room. But you're d——ed if you're going to be driven away by a cat! You suck grimly on your coffee and think about complaining to the Management. Tracking down the Manager increase

OR

The cat sits at the long bar, disconsolately drinking coffee. You think it's nursing a hangover. It gives you a long and bloodshot look as you slide in next to it. 'Are you here to stay? Or are you just another goddamn weekender?' Well. That's certainly not very polite. You don't feel welcome at all. Nightmares has dropped

Skeins of blood

You've been murdering people. Again. All right, there is a degree of chaos, but you can't be blamed, can you? Not when they keep STANDING STILL. God. At least you can take the products and results and make hats. Yes, let them stare.
Rewards:Dangerous increaseNightmares decrease

All images and directly quoted text are (c) Failbetter Games Ltd. and are used by permission.